BFS students won in 4 categories & placed 2nd in 2 more at the Bedfordshire Festival of Music, Speech & Drama

New Website:

Welcome to our new fantastic website!

Aspire to Engineer:

This year the theme was genetic engineering & BFS came Runners-Up – Congratulations to all involved

Year 9:

Year 9 Options Evening – Thursday 21st March

WORLD CLASS TEACHER EDUCATORS COME TO BEDFORD

Learning Scientists Conference January 2019

On Friday 18th and Saturday 19th January 2019, over 200 educators from around the country converged on Bedford to attend a Science of Learning conference, organised by Advantage Schools and hosted at The Quarry Theatre. The workshops offered delegates the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest cognitive scientists in the world, and was attended by enthusiastic teachers, university lecturers, teaching assistants and educational leaders.

The workshops were delivered by The Learning Scientists, a group of cognitive psychological scientists based in America and Scotland, whose mission is to make scientific research on learning more accessible to educators and students. With a focus on evidence, the presenters guided delegates through strategies that can increase effective teaching and motivate students to study.

Sallie Stanton, Director of Education at Advantage Schools, said, “It is a real privilege to host these world-renowned experts in the field of education. As a trust, we want our staff to be the best educators they can be and for their teaching practice to be evidence informed. As a result, we really want to develop our collective understanding of the role cognitive science plays in helping students learn, and we believe The Learning Scientists are best placed to help us with this.”

The two day event was initially organised for teachers and teaching assistants within Advantage Schools, a Bedford based trust that runs Bedford Free School and Elstow School, but as part of the Trust’s commitment to collaborative working, tickets were opened up to other schools, trusts and educational professionals, with complimentary tickets offered to teachers training in Bedfordshire. Furthermore, the event was supported by Bedford School, who provided the venue; the beautiful Quarry Theatre.

Stuart Lock, CEO of Advantage Schools, said, “The Learning Scientists have already had a huge impact on practice in our schools, but we wanted to develop further and bring their insights to a wider educational community. We are delighted that so many educational professionals, locally and from around the country, have chosen to join us in Bedford for this exciting opportunity, and we are confident students in all of our schools will benefit as a result.”